"The groundwork of all happiness is health." - Leigh Hunt

1 in 5 deaths are brought on by heart disease, but what else are Australians dying from?

No one dies in good health, at the very least not of their final moments. But to think that the causes of death are easy to count or that there is normally just one reason that an individual passes away is an oversimplification.

In fact, in 2022, 4 out of 5 Australians had multiple conditions listed on their death certificate on the time of their death, and almost 1 / 4 had five or more listed. This is one in all many key findings. New report From the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

The report distinguishes between three kinds of death – primary, direct, and secondary. A primary cause is a condition that initiates a series of events resulting in death, equivalent to coronary heart disease. The direct explanation for death is what the person died from (quite than with), equivalent to a heart attack. Contributing causes are things that contribute significantly to the chain of events resulting in death but usually are not directly involved, equivalent to hypertension. The report also explores how these three kinds of causes may overlap in multi-cause mortality.

The top five causes of death in Australia in 2022 were coronary heart disease (20% of deaths), dementia (18%), hypertension or hypertension (12%), cerebrovascular disease equivalent to stroke (11.5%). , and diabetes (11.4%).



When the underlying explanation for death was examined, the list was similar (coronary heart disease 10%, dementia 9%, cerebrovascular disease 5%, followed by COVID and lung cancer, 5% each). This signifies that heart disease was not only hidden on the time of death, but in addition the underlying cause.

However, probably the most common direct explanation for death was respiratory failure (8%), cardiac or respiratory arrest (6.5%), sepsis (6%), pleurisy, or pneumonia (4%) or hypertension (4%). %) was

Why is that this essential?

Without taking a look at all contributing causes of death, the role of major aspects equivalent to heart disease, sepsis, depression, hypertension and alcohol use can’t be discounted.

More importantly, a wide range of reasons point to areas where we must always focus public health prevention. The report also helps us understand which groups needs to be focused on for prevention and health care. For example, the leading explanation for death in women was dementia, while in men it was coronary heart disease.



People under the age of 55 are likely to die from external events equivalent to accidents and violence, while older people die from a background of chronic illness.



We cannot prevent death, but we are able to prevent many diseases and injuries. And the report highlights that a lot of these causes of death, for each younger and older Australians, are preventable. The top five conditions resulting in death (coronary heart disease, dementia, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease and diabetes) all have shared risk aspects equivalent to tobacco use, high cholesterol, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, or risk aspects themselves, e.g. High blood pressure or diabetes. .



Tobacco use, hypertension, chubby or obesity, and poor food plan accounted for 44 percent of all deaths within the report. This suggests that a holistic approach to health promotion, disease prevention and management is required.



These include eating a healthy food plan, participating in regular physical activity, limiting or eliminating alcohol consumption, quitting smoking, and seeing a physician for normal health checkups, equivalent to Medicare-funded strategies and programs. needs to be Heart Health Checkup. Programs on accident prevention, mental health and violence, particularly gender-based violence, will address premature deaths amongst young people.